Labour MP and former army major Eric Joyce has been charged with three counts of common assault and stripped of the party whip after being detained by police following reports of a disturbance in a House of Commons bar.

Joyce, the MP for Falkirk, spent the night in Belgravia police station after he was arrested and removed from the Strangers' Bar on Wednesday evening.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We were called at approximately 10.50pm last night to reports of a disturbance at a bar within the House of Commons. A man aged in his 50s was arrested by officers on suspicion of assault."

A Labour party spokesman said: "This is an extremely serious incident. We have suspended Eric Joyce pending the results of the police investigation."

John Bercow, the speaker, made a special statement about the incident in the Commons on Thursday morning.

He told MPs: "Members will be aware of reports of a serious incident in the house last night. I have been informed by the serjeant at arms that [Eric Joyce] has been detained in police custody.

"The matter is being investigated. I take this matter very seriously, as do the house authorities. I ask that no further reference should be made to these reports in the chamber today."

Ed Miliband removed the whip from Joyce amid allegations that he struck at least four MPs, including a Labour whip. Joyce is alleged to have headbutted and punched the Conservative MP Stuart Andrew.

In response to a tweet asking how he was, Andrew replied: "Thank you. I am OK."

Alec Shelbrooke, the Conservative MP for Elmet and Rothwell, was also reportedly caught up in the fracas after he urged Joyce to calm down. Phil Wilson, a Labour whip who is responsible for party discipline, is said to have been struck when he tried to calm the situation.

Jackie Doyle-Price, the Conservative MP for Thurrock, is also understood to have intervened. Joyce was handcuffed and led away by security officers.

The incident occurred shortly after a delegation of Canadian parliamentarians, including Canada's speaker, had been drinking in the bar.

Andrew was in the bar after an event organised for the Canadians by his colleague Andrew Percy.

Joyce, who was first elected as MP for Falkirk West at a byelection in December 2000, served in the army medical corps before he embarked on a political career.

He was suspended from the army in 1998 after writing a Fabian pamphlet that accused the army of snobbery.

Joyce served as an aide to a series of ministers between 2003 and 2009. But in 2009 he resigned as parliamentary private secretary to the then defence secretary Bob Ainsworth amid unease at the number of military deaths in Afghanistan.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Eric Joyce, aged 51, an MP of Union Street, Bo'ness, West Lothian has been charged with three counts of common assault following an incident within the House of Commons on Wednesday 22 February.

"He will appear on bail at West London Magistrates' Court on 7 March."